1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning type printing apparatus that performs printing on a recording medium through scanning of a main body provided with a printing means, and more particularly to a scanning type printing apparatus that uses an ink jet recording method and is capable of printing a desired text, drawing, or the like even in the case where it is difficult to move a recording medium and it is hard to change the moving direction of a main body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there have been proposed various scanning type printing apparatuses that each perform printing on an object to be printed through hand-held scanning while checking a print state or a print position (see JP 10-35028 A, JP 10-35033 A, JP 2001-253121 A, and the like). In JP 10-35028 A, there is disclosed a handheld type printing apparatus including on its top surface portion an LCD that is a liquid crystal displaying apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “Related Art 1”). In Related Art 1, the LCD is controlled so that scroll-displaying is performed in accordance with the print operation of this apparatus. This makes it possible to display a print state and to prevent a situation where the print operation is terminated halfway through the printing. As a result, it becomes possible to prevent print shifts in advance.
In JP 10-35033 A, there is disclosed a hand-held scanning type printing apparatus that is capable of printing the same title on both sides of a tag seal for indexing without reversing this seal (hereinafter referred to as “Related Art 2”). The printing apparatus of Related Art 2 is provided with a recording means for performing printing on a recording medium by moving on the recording medium. This printing apparatus also includes a moving amount detection means for detecting a moving amount of the recording means, a designation means for designating a tag print mode in which printing is performed on the tag seal, and a control means for controlling the recording means so that, at the time of the designation of the tag print mode, print data is reversed horizontally and vertically and the printing is performed from the last character.
In Related Art 1 described above, however, the moving direction during the hand-held scanning and the direction of characters to be printed are unchangeable, so that in the case where the printing direction on a recording medium should be changed, it is required to change the direction of the recording medium or to change the hand-held scanning (moving) direction of the printing apparatus. Consequently, there is a problem that printing involves a difficulty under a condition where it is difficult to move the recording medium and it is hard to change the moving direction. On the other hand, in Related Art 2 described above, it is difficult to predict a print result. In particular, it is difficult to predict a print direction. There is also a problem that, in some cases, scanning is performed in a wrong direction and printing is not performed correctly.